Conventional processing techniques used in connection with silicon and silica containing integrated circuit chips often involve high processing temperatures of 600° C. or more. Most conventional integrated circuit chips have a substrate made of glass, quartz, or silicon, which can tolerate relatively high temperature processing. Such high temperatures are required by one or more processing techniques including, for example, silicon re-crystallization, wet oxidation, high temperature chemical vapor deposition, and dopant activation anneals.
There is a continuing trend in the semiconductor industry to shrink components on integrated circuit chips for smaller, faster computing devices. At this time, commercially available integrated circuit chips contain MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) that are microns in width. As the chips and components thereon shrink, it is more important to account for certain physical properties, such as unwanted diffusion, crosstalk, adequate insulation (both electrical and temperature), coefficients of thermal expansion, short channel effects, leakage, critical dimension control, drain induced barrier lowering, and the like, when making circuit designs. Accordingly, new materials, new methods, and new design parameters are required to further this continuing trend.